Maui County, Stevens Point now ‘connected communities’

College student exchanges, agricultural opportunities discussed

Stevens Point, Wis., and Maui County are separated by 4,099 miles as the crow flies. Now, however, the two communities are officially linked.

After more than a year of building connections through conversation, Maui County and Stevens Point mayors Mike Victorino and Mike Wiza are formalizing a relationship between their communities in hopes of building beneficial relationships for years to come.

"I think it can do an immense amount of good for Maui County," Victorino said Tuesday. "This is a multifaceted approach of connecting our communities -- culture, art, education, business, agriculture. I mean, you name it, we are kind of encompassing the entire community and many segments of our community that, first of all Mayor Wiza and I agree, are identical.

"We are small communities, small town, we think in that ohana feeling of always taking care of one another, taking care of each other when things get bad."

On Tuesday, each mayor signed a proclamation declaring January as Maui-Stevens Point Connected Communities month, which will become an annual celebration.

Sentry Insurance, which is based in Stevens Point, laid the foundation for the proclamation in advance of the 2022 Sentry Tournament of Champions PGA Tour golf tournament, which gets underway on Thursday at the Kapalua Plantation Course.

In its five years as title sponsor of the Sentry Tournament of Champions, the mutual insurance group from Stevens Point has enhanced its charitable giving to the local community each year, including creating a scholarship program for graduates of Maui County public high schools, providing financial support for COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts on island, and, more recently, providing financial support to help address childhood hunger here.

The Connected Communities initiative will serve to connect similar organizations in these and other areas to exchange ideas and best practices to benefit both communities.

Sentry has initiated conversations between the University of Hawaii Maui College and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the Maui and Portage County United Ways, and the Maui Arts League and Karen Ann Hoffman, a Stevens Point artist.

Chris Richards, vice chancellor for university advancement at Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and Jocelyn Romero Demirbag, director of development at the University of Hawai'i Foundation, and their chancellors are discussing student and faculty exchanges.

"It's indispensable for an institution like ours that is not in a hub of metropolitan activity to have those experiences for our faculty, our staff and our students -- to have conversations with people who share values, but approach life in an entirely different way," Richards said in a news release.

Pete McPartland, Sentry chairman of the board, president and CEO, is excited for the possibilities of the new partnership between the communities.

"The idea here is to connect the communities in any way that we can," he said. "And to learn from one another and to do some joint problem solving on things that affect both communities. It is just now getting started, but it is happening."

Wiza said there are a surprising number of similarities between the two communities.

"The other thing I've realized is how much the same we are -- that's really the thing that's gotten me quite amazed," Wiza said. "We have a pretty good sustainability culture here in Wisconsin. ... We're a pretty big tourist industry here in Northern Wisconsin as well. We realize the economic value of the water and the natural resources that we have, the value that it gives to life, of course.

"On Maui, it's exactly the same thing. You are heavily (reliant on) tourism, so you understand the necessity to conserve the natural resources because you are literally an island. You can't go drive across the state line and get a truckload of water, for example. What you have is what you have."

One of the earliest benefits of the community partnership will be in agriculture.

"One of our primary industries is potatoes," Wiza said. "You have industrial commercial agriculture doing the same kind of things. Potatoes may not grow very well in Maui, but coffee does and pineapples do. The science behind the agriculture is the same, whether you're growing potatoes in Central Wisconsin or coffee in Maui.

"The challenges are the same, too. So, sharing those agricultural resources, we have a pretty strong farm-to-table initiative. Many of our local restaurants are supplied through local farmers. Your Mahi Pono farms do exactly that and then 4,000 miles apart they're doing the same thing. ... It's all helping both communities in a big way."

* Robert Collias can be reached at rcollias@mauinews.com.